


Old Flames

by pengwinn



Series: Frank Turner Song Fics ~ Arrow Edition [2]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-28
Updated: 2016-08-28
Packaged: 2018-08-11 15:47:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,204
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7898599
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pengwinn/pseuds/pengwinn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Felicity gets dragged to a party with Sara and runs into an unpleasant part of her past.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Old Flames

**Author's Note:**

> All right folks. This one is a little bit darker and more full of angst.
> 
>  
> 
> I don’t particularly find trigger warnings helpful or necessary, but I will say that this one includes some mentions of physical and mental abuse, though none of it is in explicit detail. It’s mostly implied.
> 
>  
> 
> Timeline wise, this takes place the weekend before “The Real Damage”. Instead of Tommy’s adventure, we get to see Felicity’s.
> 
>  
> 
> Here are the lyrics that go along with this fic. 
> 
>  
> 
> "And oh, honey,  
> It won't be the same  
> Oh, honey, we'll never change  
> We're drawn back into the flame  
> When we both, both should have stayed, stayed away."
> 
>  
> 
> Here we go.

“Well. I didn’t expect to see you here.” 

 

She knows that she stiffens visibly. She’s pretty sure her face contorts a bit and that she’s no longer smiling, although she does her very best not to scowl. Her hands clench at her sides and she wills herself not to form them in to fists. She can’t help it. She hasn’t heard his voice in almost nine months, and although she knew there was a possibility he’d be at this party she’d been dragged along to, she was hoping the odds would be in her favor. 

 

Apparently they weren’t. 

 

Bracing herself, she turns around and faces him with a forced neutral look on her face. “Cooper.” 

 

“Felicity.” He looks exactly the same. Brown hair slightly ruffled, plaid button down open over his graphic tee, eyes bright and dark at the same time. And he’s wearing the same self-satisfied smirk she had originally thought was charming. His eyes sweep up and down her frame in what he might think is seductive but it really just makes her want to take a shower. “Who are you here with?”

 

She motions over to Sara, standing over by the keg, flirting with one of the party hosts. Felicity had positioned herself by the door that leads to back yard. She knows that if she needs to she can sneak out for a break and Sara would know exactly where she’d gone. 

 

Cooper looks surprised. “How does Baby Lance know Myron?” 

 

Felicity rolls her eyes.

 

When she’d started dating Cooper during junior year of high school, she’d really thought that he was the one. A geeky computer hacker that happened to be drop dead gorgeous and somehow interested in her as well? How could that go wrong? 

 

So much had gone wrong. 

 

Cooper had fooled everyone at first. He was charming, and quirky. He seemed like a great fit for Felicity. They had so much in common, and his outgoing personality seemed to balance her introverted one. 

 

Slowly, her friends started to become more concerned. Sara didn’t like how controlling Cooper was. It seemed like he needed to know everything Felicity did, where she was going, who she was with, and when she’d be home. He invited himself along more often than not and spent the entire night glued to her side, trying to keep all of her attention on him. 

 

Oliver didn’t like how many of Felicity’s interests were being pushed aside for Cooper’s. She stopped working on all of her own projects and started helping him on all of his. She stopped playing her computer games and reading her Jane Austen novels. Everything they did was something Cooper wanted to do. 

 

Tommy was concerned about how jealous Cooper was. By the third month they were together, he had a problem with every single one of Felicity’s friends, no matter how close they were. Cooper hated Tommy and Oliver with a passion. He was paranoid that the two of them were trying to steal Felicity from him and refused to let her spend time with them alone.

 

By the fourth month they were dating, Cooper had tried to get Felicity to stop talking to all three of them. Why couldn’t she spend time with him and his friends instead? Tommy, Oliver and Sara didn’t know Felicity like he did. They weren’t good enough for her. He should be enough for her. Why wasn’t he enough?

  
Felicity had tried in vain to explain to Cooper that Tommy, Oliver and Sara were more than just her best friends. They were her tribe; her people; her family. When she’d moved to Starling with her mom she’d had no one. They had taken her in as their own and made her feel like she belonged. They knew her better than he thought. 

 

He tried his damnedest to get her to cut off all ties with them. He’d been very angry when it hadn’t worked. 

 

Explaining the hole in the wall to her mother had been very difficult. Explaining the bruise on her arm to Tommy had been even more difficult.

 

She shakes her head at the memory of that argument and shrugs. “He came by a couple of months ago to work on our project together and Sara was staying with me while my mom was out of town. They hit it off. They’ve been hanging out a lot.”

 

At that, Cooper laughs. “Good for Myron. Getting some rich-girl ass.”

 

A surge of hot anger floods down her spine and she swallows back an angry reply. She hates that he still has this effect on her. She knows he’s just trying to get a rise out of her; she doesn’t want to give him the satisfaction. “Where’s Hannah?” 

 

It’s Cooper’s turn to rolls his eyes. “You know that didn’t mean anything, Lis.”  
  
She flinches at the term of endearment. “Don’t call me that, Cooper.”

 

“Where the rest of the gang? Queen not allowed to speak to you again?”

 

Felicity grits her teeth. “Laurel and Oliver are back together, yes. Tommy and Oliver went to spend the weekend with her at school.”

 

“And you weren’t invited.” He says pointedly. 

 

“I had plans.”

 

“Right. Because I’m sure you were planning on coming to Myron’s party all along.” He’s laughing at her again and she wants to slap the smirk right off his face. 

 

Instead, she turns away from him and strides through the back door, waiting for her eyes to adjust to the dark. She clutches her sweatshirt a little tighter around her, wishing she’d brought a second one. It’s February, and although the weather is starting to warm up it’s still pretty damn cold at night. Myron’s backyard is fairly large and has a trampoline over in the right hand corner. She makes her way over to it and hops on, laying on her back and staring up at the stars. She focuses on trying to find the little dipper and tries to ignore the fact that Cooper has followed her. 

 

“C’mon Lis, don’t do that. Don’t walk away from me. We were just talking.”

 

“Don’t call me that.” She says again. 

 

He laughs darkly. “Right. Because only Merlyn can call you that.”

 

“It’s a nickname, Cooper. Not some kind of sex-kitten role-play codename. My grandmother has a nickname for me too, but I’ve never heard you try to call me Fee before.”

 

“Uh huh. Merlyn’s feelings for you are completely and utterly platonic. Queen’s, too.”  
  
She sits up when she feels the trampoline dip. Cooper joins her; he’s sitting across from her with a very aggressive look on his face. She swallows tightly and holds her chin up. “Sometimes guys and girls can be _just_ friends. The fact that you fuck every girl you meet doesn’t mean that other guys are like that.”

 

The image of him and Hannah in bed flashes across her mind, making her stomach tighten. Hannah was one of the only friends she’d made in college. They’d met each other the second day of freshman orientation and had bonded over similar upbringings and favorite books. Cooper had cheated on her before. In the three years they’d been together on and off, he’d cheated on her with Shauna, Melissa, Jamie, Amy, Christina, Rachael, Cori, Amanda, Becca, Andy, Jill, and Tricia. None of them had hurt as much as Hannah. Hannah had been the straw that broke the camel’s back. 

 

He hadn’t even apologized that time. He’d just laughed and asked her what she’d expected. 

 

“You think Merlyn doesn’t sleep around?”

 

“What Tommy does is none of your business. It never was, and it never will be. This isn’t about Tommy, this is about you.”

 

“Ah, and none of it has to do with you.” He sounds so smug she wants to punch him. Right in the teeth. 

 

“Are we doing this again? You telling me it’s my fault you cheated on me? Because I’m…what was it you said? A cold, unaffectionate bitch? I’m frigid? I don’t like public displays of affection so you need to go stick your tongue down someone else’s throat?”

 

“It wasn’t all bad, Felicity. You know it wasn’t.” Cooper inches closer to her and she freezes when she feels their knees touch. He reaches a hand out and pushes a piece of hair behind her ear. She flinches back and he sighs. “C’mon, don’t do that.”

 

“Cooper, what are you doing?”

 

“Don’t you miss it, even a little bit?”

 

“No.”

 

“I miss fucking you.” 

 

Felicity gawks at him and for a second her throat doesn’t quite work. “No you don’t. You didn’t like sleeping with me when we were together. All you did was cheat on me. You couldn’t even…” She swallows. “You had to go text other girls to…”

 

“Get off? Cum?” Cooper smiles at her. It makes her skin crawl. “It’s so cute how shy you are about it. Honestly, Felicity, if you’d been a little bit more creative in the bedroom-“

 

“You still would’ve cheated on her because you’re a fucking asshole.” 

 

Apparently, Sara noticed she was missing. She’s walking towards them, hands on her hips and her mouth set in a firm line. Myron is trailing closely behind her.

 

“Sara.”

 

“Fuckface.”

 

Cooper gives her a withering smile. “Felicity and I were just having a conversation about our relationship. I don’t believe anyone invited you.”

 

“You don’t have a relationship. You haven’t had a relationship for nine months. Leave her alone.”

 

“If Felicity wanted me to leave her alone she would’ve asked me to, and I would.”

 

“I highly doubt that. Felicity, have you asked Fuckface to leave you alone?” Out of the corner of her eye she sees Cooper flinch at the insult. Sara has a knack for getting under Cooper’s skin. 

 

“No, I haven’t.”

 

“Because you’re too polite. Do you want Fuckface to leave you alone?”

 

Felicity smiles. This is why Sara is her best friend. “Yes.”

 

“There you have it. Leave her alone.”

 

Cooper glares at Sara, quirking an eyebrow at Myron as if asking for backup. Myron looks almost as angry as Sara. 

 

Felicity makes a mental note to ask Sara what she’s told Myron about the breakup later. 

 

“You should go, Coop.” Myron says with a slight edge to his voice. 

 

“Fine. Fine. I’ll go. Whatever. This party sucked anyways.” 

 

Cooper shoves his way off the trampoline, pushing Felicity off in the process. She lands roughly on her back in the grass, the wind knocked out of her lungs. 

 

She hears Sara’s angry growl and then suddenly Cooper is on the ground next to her, an angry blonde pinning him there with her knees as she swings at his face. He rears his fist back to punch her, but Felicity rolls quickly and puts herself in-between them. 

 

“You fucking asshole piece of shit-“ 

 

If Felicity hadn’t been trying to keep Cooper from hitting her (and trying desperately to pull Sara off of him) she would’ve been impressed with the profanity coming out of Sara’s mouth. 

 

Soon, Myron has pulled Sara and Felicity off of Cooper, but not before Coop has landed a blow to Felicity’s face and a kick to her ribs. She coughs hard and winces at the pain. She stands next Sara and Myron, shaking with adrenaline and nerves.

 

“You definitely need to fucking leave, man.” 

 

“Yeah, I’m gone.”

 

Cooper glares at Felicity as he picks himself up off the ground. “Give me a call when you change your mind and want to talk, Lis. It’s not like you have many other options.” 

 

Myron has to hold Sara back again so that another brawl doesn’t break out. 

 

*-*-*-*

 

Felicity waits a half hour before she makes an excuse to leave, dodging worried looks and questions from Sara and Myron the rest of the night. She makes sure Sara has a way home and then gets into her beat up Chevy Cavalier and drives home with shaky hands and an aching chest. 

 

Once she gets home, she changes in to her comfiest yoga pants and her favorite sweatshirt and pulls out one of her projects. She needs code and lots of it.

 

At around three a.m., she spares a glance at her phone for the first time in hours. She has five missed calls and fifteen text messages. One of the phone calls is from her mom. There’s a voicemail but Felicity doesn’t bother listening to it. Her mom’s gone back to Vegas to visit one of her friends and won’t be home until next week. Three of the phone calls are from Tommy. He’s left her a voicemail for each one, but they’re hard to discern. He sounds very drunk and there’s a lot of background noise. 

 

The last two calls are from Cooper. 

 

The text messages are mostly from Cooper, too. 

 

There are four texts from Tommy, completely indecipherable except for a selfie of him, Oliver and Laurel in front of a keg looking very hammered with a caption, ‘Come join us, I miss you :(‘. 

 

Felicity rolls her eyes, puts her phone on the other side of the room and sits down with her laptop. 

 

Yes. Code. She needs a lot of code and a lot of caffeine to get through this weekend. 

 

 

 

~FIN~

**Author's Note:**

> As usual, here's a link to the song that gives this chapter it's title. This is an acoustic version. It's pretty great. 
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lkv6TsnmirU


End file.
